Zhang Xiaoqiang was once an ordinary young man with no particular ambitions,content to while away his days in aimless routine.When the virus outbreak struck,he happened to be holed up at home,inadvertently avoiding the initial wave of infection.Peering out the window at the zombie-like crowd shuffling below,he was gripped by overwhelming terror.In a desperate bid to steal a few cabbages from a neighbor’s vegetable patch,he nearly lost his life.Tormented by loneliness and pushed to his limits,he finally grasped his makeshift weapons—a hammer,a crossbow,and a water pipe gun—and stepped resolutely into the smoke-filled,chaotic world outside.